[Discussion] What it takes to be a SH recruit

[Vandenre1ch]

I'll be blunt: I hate SH requirement theories and topics( I'm not helping I know) because not only are there ALOT of them, no one gives a real reason why a certain character will become a SH. About 98% of reasons people give is "I like the guy", "it will be cool", "he/she will be a fine addition to the crew." By this, every character in the series is a SH candidate. Several PMs from people pushed me to make this(unwillingly....)

Quick Trivia: For SHs, Oda has expressed his desire to have 3 swordsman, a female melee fighter and at least 1 logia. There is also a pattern with SH recruits:
East Blue Recruits
1st Male-Zoro
2nd Female-Nami
Failed Recruit Gaimon
3rd Male-Usopp
4th Male-Sanji
Roger Pirate-Crocus

Grand Line
1st Male Chopper
2nd Female Robin
Failed Recruit Vivi
3rd Male Franky
4th Male Brooke
****************************************************************************************************************************************
1- Foreshadowing

2- Along term goal or dream

3- Sad Backstory

4- Unique Design

5- Unique Ability

6- Must be a good person

7- Color Scheme

8- Nationality

Spoiler

The SH nationalities have changed over the TS.

Luffy- Japanese
Zoro- German or Irish
Nami- American
Usopp- Brazilian
Sanji- French
Chopper- Canadian
Robin- Indian
Franky- Chinese
Brooke- British

You must be registered for see images

9- Must be weaker than Sanji(M3) but stronger than Chopper(W3)

10- Unique role in the crew(doesn't have to be traditional ship roles)

11- Parallel with one or more BB pirates

12- Has to be an important part of the story as a whole
************************************************************************************************************
1st Place) Jinbe 11/12- Missing a real nationality

2nd Place) Tashigi 8/12- Missing point 3,8,11,12

3rd Place) Smoker 9/12- Missing point 2,3,9

4th Place) Kyros 8/12- Missing point 2,10,11,12

5th Place) Elbaf Warrior 6/12- Missing point 2,3,8,9,10,12

6th Place) Monet 5/12- Only has point 4,5,9,10,12

7th Place) Bartolomeo 5/12- Only has point 4,5,6,7,9

8th Place) Kinemon 5/12- Only has point 1,4,5,6,9 and has a son that he might not leave behind.

9th Place) Viola 4/12- Only has point 3,4,6,8 and her ability makes her a walking spoiler. Anything she does as a SH can be done better as a RV.

10th Place and Disqualified) Law 4/12- The SHs already has a doctor and Law has his own crew

11th Place) Momonosuke 3/12- Only has point 5,6,7 and he is freaking 8

12th Place) Rebecca 3/12- Only has point 3,5,6 and she looks way too much like Nami

13th Place) Bellamy 1/12- Only has a unique DF and is pretty much the opposite of what a SH stands for.

 

[Hexuze]

The nationalities were just for the color spread. It's pretty weird for Oda to just randomly change it like that and the idea of changing nationality is very unlikely. I don't see Smoker or Tashigi joining as well, both have a rivalry going against Luffy and Zoro respectively. Btw, care to elaborate on the color scheme? Jinbei joining has been foreshadowed a lot and I agree he is the number one choice.

 

[Uzumaki Macho]

Usopp didn't even have a role in the crew before Luffy noticed how good of a sniper Usopp was when practicing with the cannon. Not all of the current SHs have parallels with a BB Pirate member.

 

[Bogard]

Jinbe is the next strawhat:

You must be registered for see links

It even make more sense when you realize, the crew has a robot, an animal, a skeleton with other different nationalities, but so far lack a fishman. Jinbe is the best case and he would even be greatly useful on sea

 

[Vandenre1ch]

The nationalities were just for the color spread. It's pretty weird for Oda to just randomly change it like that and the idea of changing nationality is very unlikely. I don't see Smoker or Tashigi joining as well, both have a rivalry going against Luffy and Zoro respectively. Btw, care to elaborate on the color scheme? Jinbei joining has been foreshadowed a lot and I agree he is the number one choice.

The nationality change wasn't random. It represents that SHs changing like how the NW changed. Lets use Usopp as an example. Pre-TS he was African but he spent two years on a jungle island that resembles Brazil. Robin was Russian because if her cold personality but during the 2 years, has become more open. Nami became even less modest(like Americans) and Brooke's time as a star made less of a gentleman and more of a British celebrity. Another one is that the SH animals changed. Pre-TS Franky was a bull and now he is a rhino. American Bull to Chinese Rhino. Robin was a Russian Crane but now she is a Indian swallow.

For color schemes, Oda said that every SH though not strongly, is still associated with a different color. In many color spreads the SHs were represented by that said color.
Luffy- Red
Zoro- Green
Nami- Orange
Usopp- Yellow
Sanji- Blue
Chopper- Pink
Robin- Violet
Franky- Cyan
Brooke- Black n' White
Jinbe- Magenta
Smoker- Gray
Tashigi- Indigo
Elbaf Giant- Brown
Kyros- Bronze
Bartolomeo- Maroon
Momomosuke- Peach

 

[Memori]

Franky = Chinese?? He gave me more of an american vibe. But still a nice theory. Though I do think point 10 won't matter anymore considering the strawhats pretty much have all the crew members they need unless they want a janitor or something like that.

I also wouldn't mind a new strawhat member that is stronger or equal to Sanji.

 

[Vandenre1ch]

Jinbe is the next strawhat:

You must be registered for see links

It even make more sense when you realize, the crew has a robot, an animal, a skeleton with other different nationalities, but so far lack a fishman. Jinbe is the best case and he would even be greatly useful on sea

Don't have to see the link as I strongly believe Jinbe is the next member. He has been foreshadowed heavily and fits in perfectly with the crew and the story.

Usopp didn't even have a role in the crew before Luffy noticed how good of a sniper Usopp was when practicing with the cannon. Not all of the current SHs have parallels with a BB Pirate member.

But Usopp still has a role as the sniper. As for BB parallels:
Luffy-BB
Zoro-Shiryu
Nami-Lafitte
Usopp-Van Auger
Sanji- If Sanji IS royalty, Avalo
Chopper- Doc Q
Robin- No real parallel as we need more info on the BBs
Franky- Avalo
Brooke- Doc Q and Lafitte
Jinbe-Vasco Shot

 

[Uzumaki Macho]

Don't have to see the link as I strongly believe Jinbe is the next member. He has been foreshadowed heavily and fits in perfectly with the crew and the story.



But Usopp still has a role as the sniper. As for BB parallels:
Luffy-BB
Zoro-Shiryu
Nami-Lafitte
Usopp-Van Auger
Sanji- If Sanji IS royalty, Avalo
Chopper- Doc Q
Robin- No real parallel as we need more info on the BBs
Franky- Avalo
Brooke- Doc Q and Lafitte
Jinbe-Vasco Shot

Luffy inviting Usopp to join even though he had no role at the time is evidence that you don't have to have a role to get an invite, or Usopp initially having no role was just an oversight by Oda. I don't see how Jinbe and Vasco Shot are parallels.

 

[chopstickchakra]

I'll be blunt: I hate SH requirement theories and topics( I'm not helping I know) because not only are there ALOT of them, no one gives a real reason why a certain character will become a SH. About 98% of reasons people give is "I like the guy", "it will be cool", "he/she will be a fine addition to the crew." By this, every character in the series is a SH candidate. Several PMs from people pushed me to make this(unwillingly....)

Quick Trivia: For SHs, Oda has expressed his desire to have 3 swordsman, a female melee fighter and at least 1 logia. There is also a pattern with SH recruits:
East Blue Recruits
1st Male-Zoro
2nd Female-Nami
Failed Recruit Gaimon
3rd Male-Usopp
4th Male-Sanji
Roger Pirate-Crocus

Grand Line
1st Male Chopper
2nd Female Robin
Failed Recruit Vivi
3rd Male Franky
4th Male Brooke
****************************************************************************************************************************************
1- Foreshadowing

2- Along term goal or dream

3- Sad Backstory

4- Unique Design

5- Unique Ability

6- Must be a good person

7- Color Scheme

8- Nationality

Spoiler

The SH nationalities have changed over the TS.

Luffy- Japanese
Zoro- German or Irish
Nami- American
Usopp- Brazilian
Sanji- French
Chopper- Canadian
Robin- Indian
Franky- Chinese
Brooke- British

You must be registered for see images

9- Must be weaker than Sanji(M3) but stronger than Chopper(W3)

10- Unique role in the crew(doesn't have to be traditional ship roles)

11- Parallel with one or more BB pirates

12- Has to be an important part of the story as a whole
************************************************************************************************************
1st Place) Jinbe 11/12- Missing a real nationality

2nd Place) Tashigi 8/12- Missing point 3,8,11,12

3rd Place) Smoker 9/12- Missing point 2,3,9

4th Place) Kyros 8/12- Missing point 2,10,11,12

5th Place) Elbaf Warrior 6/12- Missing point 2,3,8,9,10,12

6th Place) Monet 5/12- Only has point 4,5,9,10,12

7th Place) Bartolomeo 5/12- Only has point 4,5,6,7,9

8th Place) Kinemon 5/12- Only has point 1,4,5,6,9 and has a son that he might not leave behind.

9th Place) Viola 4/12- Only has point 3,4,6,8 and her ability makes her a walking spoiler. Anything she does as a SH can be done better as a RV.

10th Place and Disqualified) Law 4/12- The SHs already has a doctor and Law has his own crew

11th Place) Momonosuke 3/12- Only has point 5,6,7 and he is freaking 8

12th Place) Rebecca 3/12- Only has point 3,5,6 and she looks way too much like Nami

13th Place) Bellamy 1/12- Only has a unique DF and is pretty much the opposite of what a SH stands for.

Do you think that cover is really giving them new nationalities compared to the ones Oda gave in a SBS? On that note is Franky supposed to be Chinese? I see the China flag but in his upper right corner I also see Finland ans Sweden those plus his pigtails made me aassume he was representing the Dutch countries in that pic.

 

[SAHAN1993]

im fully supporter of jinbe joining.But smaoke and tashigi?why they need to join anyway?

even if monet is alive she has better chances than tashigi

1- Foreshadowing - checked

2- Along term goal or dream -still not yet confirmed some how she is interested in astronomy

3- Sad Backstory - she should have.even in sbs have some details about it

4- Unique Design - sure she has

5- Unique Ability - unique and luffy love snow

6- Must be a good person - she is a good person in flashbacks btw who trow that note to choppa

7- Color Scheme should be light green or spring green prefect match for rgb color circle

8- Nationality not yet confirmed btw is that need to confirm before joining the crew?

9- Must be weaker than Sanji(M3) but stronger than Chopper(W3) - why not?weaker than sanji stronger than choppa


10- Unique role in the crew(doesn't have to be traditional ship roles) - not yet confirmed but she will have it definitely may be as astronomer?

11- Parallel with one or more BB pirates we still dont know about BB full crew

12- Has to be an important part of the story as a whole - sure why not?

 

[Vandenre1ch]

Luffy inviting Usopp to join even though he had no role at the time is evidence that you don't have to have a role to get an invite, or Usopp initially having no role was just an oversight by Oda. I don't see how Jinbe and Vasco Shot are parallels.

Usopp was shown to be a good sniper on Syrup Island. He shot targets right in the center. Point is that SHs has a role in the crew. Whether their role in the crew is shown before or after recruitment, they still need a role and some characters don't have any.

Do you think that cover is really giving them new nationalities compared to the ones Oda gave in a SBS? On that note is Franky supposed to be Chinese? I see the China flag but in his upper right corner I also see Finland ans Sweden those plus his pigtails made me aassume he was representing the Dutch countries in that pic.

The one in SBS was Pre-TS and Oda also said that Robin was a crane and that Franky was a bull. Not long after the timeskip, Oda threw this as a new beginning for the SHs:

You must be registered for see images

As you can see, some of the animals Oda labeled as SHs in SBS has changed for the TS. Some nationalities have changed as well and Franky has a martial arts stance and a dragon on his red shirt(in the nationality pic).

 

[Caliburn]

I really don't get why why around half of these things are listed.

1) Foreshadowing

You can only be certain about foreshadowing after you had confirmation, meaning a character joined, it was foreshadowing. With other words you can only know this afterwards, hence why so many people see supposed foreshadowing in everything. A rather pointless thing to add to this list.

2) A goal

Correct, but this supposed goal can be thrown in at any time. A character could join and only afterwards his/her goal revealed. This is not a necessary requirement for the immediate joining.

3) A sad backstory

Well by default a backstory will be given, but again as in 2 this does not have to be given beforehand. A character can join and only later his/her background gets revealed. So it's not a necessary requirement for the immediate joining.

4 en 5) Unique design and ability

Oda gives even characters that appear on the background and don't utter a single word unique designs and abilities. During the latest arc many of the Colosseum fighters had unique designs and abilities. This is something that by default will be there just because it's Oda.

6) Good person

This is very relative, especially in OP. Oda doesn't follow the concept of good and evil as being each other opposites. Afterwards Strawhats always are good-natured, but that doesn't necessarily has to be on the moment they join, this is the same thing as with two and three.

7) Color scheme

The manga is in greyscale. Color is something that's only used in his cover arts and the anime and how someone has to determine what is a good scheme and what isn't, is beyond me.

8) Nationality

What has this to do with anything? Oda gave the Strawhats nationalities in the SBS, it's something he can give them on a whim. He also gave the flower which each Strawhat represent and which role each one would have if they were a real family. This really has nothing to do with this and even less with that cover art as unless Oda clearly stated that he changed their nationalities, that is just a cover art where he depicted the Strawhats in cloths from different countries. There's really no reasons assume he changed them just because of that cover art, especially because most of these don't even make sense.

9) Must be weaker than Sanji but stronger than Chopper

That's relative, a new Strawhat simply needs to be able to hold his/her own. That you use Sanji as a limit is questionable too as Robin has a higher bounty than him. Oda could have easily given Sanji those last few millions to get a higher bounty than her, but he didn't. I'm not saying that Robin therefore is stronger, but it does show that Sanji is pretty much always the one who falls out of it. Luffy and Zoro are the two who always remained a constant. I also don't get how Jinbei is supposed to conform with this requirement. The reason I don't believe he will be the next Strawhat, is this. Sanji is not stronger than Jinbei, in the least it would be a complete baseless assumption if he would. In fact it's questionable if even Luffy is clearly stronger than him.

10) Unique role

Correct and frankly this is the only one I personally see as one of the few real requirements considering so far no one has joined randomly. Everyone has a specific position.

11) Parallel with the BB pirates

Very questionable. Many people automatically assume that because the BB have some characters that have the same position as some of the Strawhats, it will be the case for all of them. The fact that you can't draw real parallels with all the characters makes this not really a requirement.

12) Has to be important to the story as a whole

Again very relative. The Strawhats are the main characters of the story, that makes them by default important. Realistically you could remove many Strawhats from the story or plainly reduce them to their position on the ship.


So in the end this list is highly subjective and also way too long. This also becomes obvious when you see your list of characters that contains characters that score very high, but of whom you can almost be certain they will never join. 1,7,8 and 11 can be completely removed. 2 and 3 can be given at any time and thus are not necessarily needed to join. 4, 5, 6 and 12 happen by default or are very relative, so rather pointless to add them here. So finally the only two here that can actually be used are 9 and 10 because so far no Strawhat joined without having a particular position and characters that would be too strong, would mess up the power scale Oda has been building up for years.

 

[chopstickchakra]

Usopp was shown to be a good sniper on Syrup Island. He shot targets right in the center. Point is that SHs has a role in the crew. Whether their role in the crew is shown before or after recruitment, they still need a role and some characters don't have any.



The one in SBS was Pre-TS and Oda also said that Robin was a crane and that Franky was a bull. Not long after the timeskip, Oda threw this as a new beginning for the SHs:

You must be registered for see images

As you can see, some of the animals Oda labeled as SHs in SBS has changed for the TS. Some nationalities have changed as well and Franky has a martial arts stance and a dragon on his red shirt(in the nationality pic).

Interesting, I missed the animal pic and usually don't pay that much attention until the 2nd or 3rd time around. I did notice the shirt and stance, it seems like we chose different things to focus on. I attributed the China flag to Robin, no real reason that's just how I saw it and I saw the Norway and Finland (not Sweden sorry Finland) flag and the pigtails and just overlooked everything else(It was the pigtails mainly, pigtails is kind of a stereotypical trait attributed to Dutch nations).

You seem to notice a lot why doesn't Sanji have an animal or am I just not seeing it? Never mind, Sanji's the ram, that's kinda weird. What animal was he before?

 

[Relostar Devil]

Usopp was shown to be a good sniper on Syrup Island. He shot targets right in the center. Point is that SHs has a role in the crew. Whether their role in the crew is shown before or after recruitment, they still need a role and some characters don't have any.



The one in SBS was Pre-TS and Oda also said that Robin was a crane and that Franky was a bull. Not long after the timeskip, Oda threw this as a new beginning for the SHs:

You must be registered for see images

As you can see, some of the animals Oda labeled as SHs in SBS has changed for the TS. Some nationalities have changed as well and Franky has a martial arts stance and a dragon on his red shirt(in the nationality pic).

i cant see zoros animal but i'm seeing pell in the crew

 

[Relostar Devil]

well getting an invitation from luffy is like getting a birthday party invitation, if you are a friend you will definitely get it.:bdpf:

and nami is paired with catarina devon and franky with sanjuan wolf by the way.
and magenta and pink are pretty same and brooks colour is black,so only probable colors left is white, brown and gray/silver.

 

[Vandenre1ch]

I really don't get why why around half of these things are listed.

1) Foreshadowing

You can only be certain about foreshadowing after you had confirmation, meaning a character joined, it was foreshadowing. With other words you can only know this afterwards, hence why so many people see supposed foreshadowing in everything. A rather pointless thing to add to this list.

2) A goal

Correct, but this supposed goal can be throw in at any time. A character could join and only afterwards his/her goal revealed. This is not a necessary requirement for the immediate joining.

3) A sad backstory

Well by default a backstory will be given, but again as in 2 this does not have to be given beforehand. A character can join and only later his/her background gets revealed. So it's not a necessary requirement for the immediate joining.

4 en 5) Unique design and ability

Oda gives even characters that appear on the background and don't utter a single word unique designs and abilities. During the latest arc many of the Colosseum fighters had unique designs and abilities. This is something that by default will be there just because it's Oda.

6) Good person

This is very relative, especially in OP. Oda doesn't follow the concept of good and evil as being each other opposites. Afterwards Strawhats always are good-natured, but that doesn't necessarily has to be on the moment they join, this is the same thing as with two and three.

7) Color scheme

The manga is in greyscale. Color is something that's only used in his cover arts and the anime and how someone has to determine what is a good scheme and what isn't, is beyond me.

8) Nationality

What has this to do with anything? Oda gave the Strawhats nationalities in the SBS, it's something he can give them on a whim. He also gave the flower which each Strawhat represent and which role each one would have if they were a real family. This really has nothing to do with this and even less with that cover art as unless Oda clearly stated that he changed their nationalities, that is just a cover art where he depicted the Strawhats in cloths from different countries. There's really no reasons assume he changed them just because of that cover art, especially because most of these don't even make sense.

9) Must be weaker than Sanji but stronger than Chopper

That's relative, a new Strawhat simply needs to be able to hold his/her own. That you use Sanji as a limit is questionable too as Robin has a higher bounty than him. Oda could have easily given Sanji those last few millions to get a higher bounty than her, but he didn't. I'm not saying that Robin therefore is stronger, but it does show that Sanji is pretty much always the one who falls out of it. Luffy and Zoro are the two who always remained a constant. I also don't get how Jinbei is supposed to conform with this requirement. The reason I don't believe he will be the next Strawhat, is this. Sanji is not stronger than Jinbei, in the least it would be a complete baseless assumption if he would. In fact it's questionable if even Luffy is clearly stronger than him.

10) Unique role

Correct and frankly this is the only one I personally see as one of the few real requirements considering so far no one has joined randomly. Everyone has a specific position.

11) Parallel with the BB pirates

Very questionable. Many people automatically assume that because the BB have some characters that have the same position as some of the Strawhats, it will be the case for all of them. The fact that you can't draw real parallels with all the characters makes this not really a requirement.

12) Has to be important to the story as a whole

Again very relative. The Strawhats are the main characters of the story, that makes them by default important. Realistically you could remove many Strawhats from the story or plainly reduce them to their position on the ship.


So in the end this list is highly subjective and also way too long. This also becomes obvious when you see your list of characters that contains characters that score very high, but of whom you can almost be certain they will never join 1,7,8 and 11 can be completely removed. 2 and 3 can be given at any time and thus are not necessarily needed to join. 4, 5, 6 and 12 happen by default or are very relative, so rather pointless to add them here. So finally the only two here that can actually be used are 9 and 10 because so far no Strawhat joined without having a particular position and characters that would be too strong, would mess up the power scale Oda has been building up for years.

Thank you for the intellectual reply.

Its my fault for not elaborating on some of the requirements for about half of them are just minor requirements; icon on the cake per say like color scheme and nationality.

1-Chopper, Robin, Franky and Brooke have all been foreshadowed by their east blue counterparts. Lets use Usopp and Franky since he is the easiest.
-Both are the leaders of their own non-pirate group
-Both were known as troublemakers in their towns
-Both got into a serious fight with Luffy
-Both joined the crew AFTER the SHs got a new ship
-Usopp constantly tried to patch up the ship and said that since he was no shipwright, he can only do so much.

2- speaks for itself and every current revealed their dream before joining.

3- Along with backstory, the potential SH must be an outcast of some kind

4 and 5- All SHs are unique. They have their very own distinctive design and abilities/talents that creates diversity. If a character has a design that is too similar to a current SH, like Rebecca to Nami, they lose points.

6- More so Luffy must think they are a good person and the current SHs were never "evil." Someone like Bellamy was a thug who killed and bullied people because he could and enjoyed it.

7- a minor point and something Oda has made apparent through out the series. Every SH does have a cetain color confirmed by Oda himself so new recruitments cant have colors that are already taken.

8- Another minor point

9- Oda has established the current M3 as always being the top 3 SHs by power and the current W3 as the weakest and has mentioned it numerous times. A new recruit should therefore follow in between.

10- In agreement here

11- Questionable indeed but the BBs are a vital part of the story and does parallel the SHs. They represent the "evil" SHs and a complete opposite route. SHs vs BBs is very likely the final fight but again its questionable.

12- Since they are the main characters, a new recruit should be an important part of the story like the others SHs and not just be there.

Interesting, I missed the animal pic and usually don't pay that much attention until the 2nd or 3rd time around. I did notice the shirt and stance, it seems like we chose different things to focus on. I attributed the China flag to Robin, no real reason that's just how I saw it and I saw the Norway and Finland (not Sweden sorry Finland) flag and the pigtails and just overlooked everything else(It was the pigtails mainly, pigtails is kind of a stereotypical trait attributed to Dutch nations).

You seem to notice a lot why doesn't Sanji have an animal or am I just not seeing it? Never mind, Sanji's the ram, that's kinda weird. What animal was he before?

Sanji was a simple goat beforehand.

 

[Vandenre1ch]

i cant see zoros animal but i'm seeing pell in the crew

Zoro is the tiger and Oda said that Brooke is Black AND White in SBS.

 

[Relostar Devil]

I dont know what is going on with you all. Don't worry i will join the crew and will fulfill all your requriements, i have even got my visa and passport ready.

 

[CrimsonReaper]

it was just a color scheme, stop making assumptions.

 

[Vandenre1ch]

it was just a color scheme, stop making assumptions.

I don't get what your are trying to say or imply...the author himself said that every SH is associated with their own unique color and I said its minor....